Tragia bicolor Miq. in Linnaea 26: 222. 1853; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 5: 465. 1888; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2(7): 1332. 1925 (repr. ed. 2: 932. 1957). T. miqueliana Müll.Arg. var. bicolor (Miq.) Müll.Arg. in DC., Prodr. 15(2): 942. 1866.

Herbaceous climbers with twining stems; young shoots, upper branches and leaves golden yellow tomentose; branches glabrous in age. Leaves cordate-ovate (or narrowly so), orbicular-ovate to ovate-lanceolate, cordate to subcordate at base, serrate to serrulate along margins, caudate at apex, 4 – 16 x 1.5 – 6.5 cm, chartaceous, densely to sparsely appressed hispid, hirsute or scabrid above, coarsely tomentose or scattered hirsute (on nerves) to glabrous beneath, 3-nerved at base; lateral nerves 3 – 5 per side; petioles 5 – 35 x 0.8 – 1.8 mm; stipules caducous. Racemes 2 – 5 cm long; peduncles 0.5 – 3 cm long. Male flowers: pedicels ca 1 mm long; sepals 3, broadly ovate to suborbicular, 1 – 1.3 x 0.7 – 1 mm; stamens 3; filaments ca 0.3 mm long; anthers oblong, ca 0.3 m long. Female flowers: sessile to subsessile; sepals 6, 3 – 5 x 3 – 4 mm, densely hirsute outside, enlarged and stellately spreading in fruit; ovary depressed, ca 1.5 mm across, densely hirsute; styles ca 2.5 mm long, connate below into a column; trifid at apex. Fruits subsessile, 4 – 5 x 8 – 10 mm, deeply 3-lobed, brown when dry, fulvous hirsute; fruiting calyx 6 – 10 x 3 – 6 mm (including lobes); main body of sepals linear to oblong, ochraceous hispid or hirsute to glabrous outside, brown or ochraceous hirsute inside; lobes 4 – 8 per side, linear, 1.5 – 3 mm long, ochraceous hispid or hirsute.

Fl. & Fr. Throughout the year (flowers green or white with irritating smell).

Distrib. India: Common in evergreen temperate shola forests of Western Ghats between 1400 – 1700 m altitudes; rare in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (Nilgiri & Pulney hills).

Endemic.